The Florida Times-UnionFour-star recruit Rashad Knight chose Rutgers over Michigan.Ask Verlon Dorminey if he ever thought he’d see the day when one of his football players would choose Rutgers over Michigan, and the 19-year head coach at Trinity Christian High School in Jacksonville, Fla., doesn’t answer directly.

He tells a story instead.

“Ten years ago — actually in 1999 — I had Robby Tebow, Tim Tebow’s older brother,” said Dorminey. “Rutgers offered Robby then. He was an outside linebacker. Carson-Newman, Valdosta and Tennessee State were the other schools recruiting him.

“This is all you need to know: He didn’t go to Rutgers (choosing Carson-Newman instead). I think that shows how far Rutgers has come the past decade.”

After spending most of the past few months piecing together a solid-at-best recruiting class, Rutgers made a splash Tuesday, securing a trio of impressive verbal commitments the day before high school players can sign binding scholarship offers from college programs.

The other — tall, rangy wide receiver Brandon Coleman of Bishop McNamara in Forestville, Md. — stiff-armed a dozen major programs by opting for the Scarlet Knights. Coleman is ranked as the No. 202 player nationally in Rivals’ top 250.

The day was capped when wide receiver/safety Jeremy Deering of Leto High School in Tampa, Fla., chose Rutgers over Florida State.

The impact from the flurry of activity was felt immediately on the national recruiting front.

“They were probably in the middle of the Big East (in terms of their recruiting class) before this,” said Tom Lemming, the recruiting expert for CBS College Sports. “Now they have a chance to catch West Virginia and Pitt for the best class in the league. These are impact players. But just as significant to me are the schools they beat to get these guys. It’s impressive.”

Knight, a 5-10, 180-pounder, and the 6-6, 200-pound Coleman, are expected to headline a recruiting class that could come in at 24 players — it is currently at 22 — when the Rutgers coaching staff collects all of the signatures on letters of intent Wednesday.

Coleman said he was aware earlier in the day that Knight had picked Rutgers — though the two have never met.

“I was never someone who paid much attention to rankings and stuff like that,” said Coleman. “But I know that when you get good players together that good things happen.”

Mike Farrell, the recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, acknowledges that Rutgers dramatically changed the perception of its incoming class with the non-binding commitments Tuesday, but says it is still just a middle-of-the-road Big East group.

“I think it saved the class,” he said. “It’s still an average class. We have it 62nd nationally and fifth in the Big East. But they are definitely finishing on a positive note.”

Coleman, who was recruited by defensive line coach Gary Emanuel and should make jump balls in the red zone fun (he has a 32-inch vertical leap), said “Rutgers just felt like the right fit to me.”

He said it helped knowing that he would have quarterback Tom Savage throwing him spirals for three years.

“Yeah, that made a difference,” he said.

Knight was swayed to Piscataway by secondary coach Ed Pinkham, and Knight and Coleman are the only four-star recruits (five being the maximum) in the class.

The 6-2, 205-pound Deering, who rushed for 1,077 yards while splitting time at quarterback and running back on offense, took official visits to Illinois and Purdue as well as Rutgers and Florida State. Cornerbacks coach Chris Hewitt handled his recruiting.

“These are very big catches,” said Lemming. “It’s always good to finish strong.”